Indonesia's Q3 GDP growth seen up slightly from Q2 - c.bank official

JAKARTA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia’s central bank expects economic growth to slightly improve in the third quarter and reach a range of 5.1-5.2 percent, a senior official told reporters on Friday.

The acceleration from the 5.01 percent growth in the second quarter may come from improving private consumption, said Dody Budi Waluyo, Bank Indonesia’s executive director of economic and monetary policy, pointing to the result of August survey of retail sales.

Waluyo said the impact of BI’s benchmark rate cut last month to credit growth would take 2-3 quarters to materialise. Thus, it would affect 2018 GDP growth more than this year, he added.

BI last month cut the benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4.50 percent. The central bank’s GDP growth outlook for 2017 is 5.2 percent and 5.26 percent for 2018. BI is due to review its policy and announce a decision on Sept. 22. (Reporting by Hidayat Setiaji; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)